Name: Grilled Brined Vegetables
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 2 bay leaves; 10 black peppercorns; 1 cup unseasoned rice vinegar; 1/4 cup sugar; Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes; 2 tablespoons kosher salt, plus more; 1 pound carrots, beets, or radishes, scrubbed, trimmed, halved or quartered if large; 1 tablespoon olive oil; Green Chile Charmoula, Spiced Seed Sprinkle, or Grilled Halloumi With Watercress (optional)

Image may contain Food Dish Meal Plant Produce Vegetable Seasoning and Platter

Photo by Christopher Testani

As long as you don’t mess with the ratio of vinegar, sugar, and salt, you can experiment with other spices, like fennel and coriander seeds, in this brine.

Recipe notes

See Related Recipes and Cooking Tips

These Are Our 107 Best Dinner Party Mains
Need an excuse to have friends over? Here are 107.
99 Summer Recipes for Everything We’re Craving Right Now
Make your summer better with recipes for breezy side dishes, desserts, cocktails, grilled mains, and simple weeknight dinners.
63 Best Grilled Vegetable Recipes for Barbecues and Beachside Bonfires
These recipes far surpass your basic grilled veggie skewers.
25 Lovely Radish Recipes
Seriously snackable, fantastically crunchable.

Gigante Beans With Seaweed Salmoriglio

Salmoriglio is a Mediterranean sauce with herbs, garlic, and olive oil. In this version, kelp is used as the base of the sauce.

Leeks With Sumac, Parm, and Pine Nuts

This side dish is flavorful enough to also serve as a main course.

Charred Vegetable Ragù

This sauce is slightly magical. The texture cloaks pasta much like a traditional meat sauce does, and the flavors are deep and rich, but it’s actually vegan!